vivid

Every year, in the early winter, Sydney lights up for Vivid, an interactive light installation all around the harbour. It's pretty awesome and you should check it out next year.

Rain + wind next to a large body of water= :( I went down to Sydney a few days earlier, and M had driven down from Little Town after work. We caught the train in from Holsworthy, so it took about an hour. All day the weather had been lovely and sunny, so I had no idea that as we pulled into Central, it was going to start raining. Heavily. But since we put all this effort in to get this far... we decided to stick it out. I panic purchased two large umbrellas (they were so large one would have been enough), pulled the cover up over Willow's stroller and wrapped a woolen blanket around her feet.

Totally worth it. Eventually the rain cleared up and a lot more families with children came out, so M and I felt a lot better about dragging Willow around in the cold and wet. She loved all the lights, and some of the stuff was really cool. Her favorite were the see saws- as you went up and down, you affected a rainbow of colours on an LED lightboard behind you.

For dinner we went to Pancakes on the Rocks. Willow picked pancakes decorated to look like a caterpillar for dinner. It was so cute because hers came out last, so knowing she was really hungry, I offered her some of mine.
"No thanks," she said. "I'm just waiting for my caterpillar. I don't want to get full."
Which was kinda cool, in an obsessed parent way- like hey, my daughter didn't pick "instant gratification" for the first time in her life!